I’m finishing the Stormlight Archive series right now and I think I need something with a bit less of the murder / war / violence aspect that many fantasy books have.

Does anyone know some (not necessarily fantasy) fiction books that are less ‘depressing’ and are easy to read?

  • southsamurai
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    1223 hours ago

    Any of the discworld series.

    You can never, ever go wrong with Pratchett.

    The last book is pretty heavy emotionally, but it’s so fucking beautiful that you’re still uplifted rather than made sad.

    If you want something that’s essentially all comedy, go with the wizard section. The first couple are a little rough because he was a new writer, but they’re just so fun

    If you want something a little more focused than farcical, the Death section is superb.

    Probably the best onramp to discworld is the city guard section though. Guards Guards! Is the first. If you try that and don’t like it, you probably won’t like most of the rest.

    The “industry” section is pretty damn fun in its own way, but tends to be a little more linear, so some folks like it better than the guards stuff.

    My personal favorite is the witches/Tiffany Aching stories. Those two arcs are linked heavily, and really lean heavily on the characters and ideas of the witches section even in the Tiffany section. Witches start out more farcical, but end up as a good comedic fantasy. The Tiffany stuff was technically written as YA oriented, and the first two show it a lot. But the rest of those turn into this character driven fantasy that’s sublime. There’s still comedy, largely from the wee free men (which is the title of the first Tiffany book), but it’s as much a coming of age story as humor. Imo, the Tiffany stuff is Pratchett’s masterwork.

    I know you said you weren’t looking specifically for fantasy, but I can’t think of any other series that manages to be funny, engaging, well plotted, and carry some serious stuff along the way as well. It’s all feel good fiction. If you can read any of it and be depressed, you’re screwed because it’s just that joyful, even the ending of it all.

    • @Screen_Shatter
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      316 hours ago

      Pratchett is one of the only authors who makes me laugh out loud consistently. Fantastic stuff.

    • ThoGotOP
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      622 hours ago

      Thank you, I don’t know how I forgot about Pratchett. Have been meaning to read the Discworld series for a while now